JOHN HARTMANN WILL JOINS US IN OCTOBER

Add another to the Chess Clinic, the last one, #6 in the form of John Hartmann (NE). Thank you for saddling up John, you are number 16! John was REFERRED by client Bob Woodworth who we hope also comes.

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Am down the trail of finishing up Chess EXTRAS #4. As those who subscribe know, I am being like CJS Purdy on this one... LATE. This every 3 months' publication has stretched out to about 9 months as the commitment to Chess Clinic #6 remains strong (Festivals and Clinics are a tremendous amount of behind the scenes work. Lots of interesting bits included such as the REAL name of Irish-American chess player and author James Mason (sorry, you will have to subscribe to find out who: $65 for 6 issues or $50 if you have a Gold Card for 2010)). According to Chessmetrics by Jeff Sonas, in the mid 1870s Mason was second only to Steinitz in playing strength!! Lots of other goodies and perhaps I can tell you more about them as I lead up to final publication.

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The Chess Clinic #6 T-shirt design is completed as you can see above. Already almost a dozen shirts have already been pre-ordered. Sizes printed will be L, XL, and XXL. I don't yet know the price but my guess is $18-22 because they will be printed on high-quality cotton fibre like others in the past and will be capable of repeated washings (you do wash them don't you?). This time only the actual ones paid for will be printed so that there are no left overs. Even if you won't come to the Clinic you can purchase the T by sending the appropriate amount +$5 for S&H in the US... price to be announced. This will be a commemorative piece since we've never done this before for a clinic. The design, based on a suggestion of mine, was done by Rob Long. Thanks Rob, another nice job. He's done T-shirts for many including Count Gor DeVol the famous Maryland TV host for Creature Features for 25-30 years (who was one of the first to use the TV medium). The caption reads: "I got my last CHECK up at CHESS CLINIC #6."

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On the most recent Chess Life cover there was a big headline: Tiger from Madras Topples Topalov. I kept seeing Topless as I would walk by its sitting on top of one of my printers, but worse is that the "headline" is meaningless since Topalov was NOT the world champion. Then in a subhead which is also bad it says "Anand retains his title with the most stirring world championship contest in years." Isn't this debatable? What about Anand-Kramnik which really stirred the hearts and imaginations of everyone or Kramnik-Topalov? Is anyone paying attention here?

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If you want to reserve a room at the Clarion Hotel for the Last Chess Clinic, please call 563-391-1230 and mention the clinic. Date: Oct. 22-23. Most are staying Friday and Saturday night, that way we can carry on forever even though Saturday is likely to be a full one. The Clarion is on Brady Street, a large hotel and on one of the main thoroughfares in Davenport, right off of I-80. I still urge early reservations as there will also be another convention there that weekend for tattoo artists! Show them WE are more serious than they.

bob@thinkerspressinc.com